The current Intifada broke out on 28 September 2000 and quickly spread throughout the entire Palestinian territories. The Israeli authorities responded with excessive force, killing 343 Palestinians to date (26 February 2001) and wounding approximately 12,000, as well as taking other arbitrary measures such as imposing a tight military siege over the West Bank and Gaza Strip and isolating Palestinian town, villages and refugee camps from each other. The Palestinian territories have also been isolated from Israel, depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinian labourers from reaching their places of work and blocking the movement of exports and imports. This type of collective punishment has been used by the Israeli authorities before, but this time Israel has placed a total siege over the PNA-controlled areas by placing concrete blocks and barricades at the entrances to all Palestinian population centres in Areas B and C. To reinforce this measure, Israeli forces have also resorted to opening fire at Palestinians trying to break the siege, whether on foot or by car, or slashing tyres and confiscating car keys, even in cases of medical emergency. Overall, the negative impact of this siege on the various aspects of Palestinian life has been massive.

The effects of the siege on the Palestinian judiciary

The tight military siege of the Palestinian territories has severely influenced the activities of the Palestinian judiciary, as follows:

Hindering freedom of movement and disrupting public transport have caused people serious difficulties reaching courts. Many Palestinian justices and administrators live outside the cities where courts are located; disrupting their freedom of movement has therefore prevented them from arriving at their place of work. Since the Palestinian judicial system requires judges to work in teams (three justices, a prosecutor and a clerk), trials cannot be legal unless the whole team is present, as well as a defence lawyer. The Israeli siege has made it all but impossible for courts to function, so many court hearings have been automatically adjourned. For instance;

Ramallah Appeal and High Court: This is the only appeal court in the northern West Bank. It also hears cases for the High Court. The court already suffered high work pressure and staff shortage before the siege, which itself has made it impossible for justices Awni Al Nathir from Hebron, Zuhair Khaleel from the north of the West Bank and Yihya Adawi from Bethlehem, to reach the court. However, three justices from the Ramallah Court of First Instance were appointed for three months (in accordance with legal procedures) to help cope with the crisis: Ghazi Atra, Hisham Al Hatu and Iman Nasir Al Deen. The terms of Ghazi Atra and Hisham Al Hatu were then renewed for another three months, beginning 11 January 2001. Unfortunately, this has had the knock-on effect of crippling the Court of First Instance. The siege has also prevented defendants and witnesses from reaching the court, so many cases have been delayed. Judge Sami Sarsour, Chief Justice of the West Bank Appeal and High Court, stated:

“In addition to the grave problems faced by the Palestinian judiciary, such as work pressure and a shortage of judges, the most difficult problem nowadays is the absence of justices, court staff and lawyers due to the siege.”

In spite of measures being taken to counteract the negative effects of the siege, court hearings have been severely disrupted. For instance:

Only 10-20% of cases, mostly for lawyers from Ramallah, were dealt with; the rest were adjourned.

Most magistrate court cases were dealt with.

Most of the cases that require defence lawyers were postponed.

Many cases awaiting judgment were postponed since judges were unable to reach court

The above difficulties are a direct result of the current situation and not of the problems already faced by the Palestinian judiciary.

Hebron Magistrate Court and Court of First Instance: These courts serve half a million Palestinians in the Hebron district and before the outbreak of the current crisis already suffered a shortage of judges, with only three justices dealing with a huge number of lawsuits. One of them, Yusif Al Salibi, who lives in Bethlehem, also presides over the municipal court. Since the siege began, he has been unable to reach Hebron, which itself has in any case been under curfew during the Intifada, preventing people from reaching courts.

Bethlehem Magistrate Court and Court of First Instance: Justice Khiri Zalum, chief justice of Bethlehem’s Magistrate Court and Court of First Instance, lives in Hebron and has been unable to reach his office due to the siege and the curfew. Other staff members have had the same problem. The pressures of the job are stronger than ever and the crisis is accentuated by the siege. Existing lawsuits have been postponed and new lawsuits regarding people in custody are divided between the other judges. Notices cannot be sent to people living outside Area A (PNA controlled area), due to the siege.

TulkaremMagistrate Court: The court officer, who lives in Qalqilya, has been unable to get to work since the beginning of the current Intifada, as has the public notary who lives in Nablus.

Jericho Magistrate Court and Court of First Instance: Justice Nasar Mansour of Jericho Magistrate Court and Court of First Instance lives in Ramallah and has been unable to reach his office because of the siege. The public notary, the clerk and the court officer have also been unable to reach it because they live in Hebron.

Chief justice Mohammad Al Hroub stated that the lack of judges and the distribution of the cases of absent judges has made the workload overwhelming. The absence of staff disrupts the work of the courts. The absence of lawyers makes it impossible to issue court orders in lawsuits.

The psychological impact

The Palestinian people in general and the legal professions in particular have been subjected to severe psychological pressure due to the siege, the suffering and the danger, as well as the huge number of causalities. Travelling from one place to another is an onerous task, and productivity has been severely disrupted. The situation has had its deep psychological repercussions on legal workers as well as on all other Palestinians deprived of the right to work in a normal environment:

The number of legal cases being brought in the West Bank has reduced. The number of applications requiring court procedures has also reduced, thus reducing the courts’ incomes. These reductions can be explained as follows:

People are more worried about the general situation and fighting the Israeli occupation;

The drop in the income as many Palestinians have become unemployed has led to reluctance to file new lawsuits in order to avoid paying fees;

Halt in the economic activities: the siege has forced many factories and commercial outlets to stop their usual activities, which has influenced people’s income and activities;

The internal crime rate has dropped due to the situation in general;

The situation has made Palestinians more willing to solve their conflicts amicably.

The reduction in lawsuits:

Tulkarem Magistrate Court

Year

October

November

December

1997

41

21

14

1998

11

27

19

1999

15

10

6

2000

5

20

10

Nablus Court of First Instance (second half of 2000)

Month

Lawsuits

Settled lawsuits

Lawsuits from previous year

(2000)

Penal

Rights

Penal

Rights

Penal

Rights

July

21

151

15

78

496

5946

August

25

129

3

21

518

6054

September

30

171

16

138

532

6087

October

25

53

2

20

555

6120

November

32

90

3

51

584

6159

December

24

64

11

39

597

6184

Nablus magistrate court

1 July – 30 September 2000

1 October – 30 December 2000

Penal

Rights

Penal

Rights

898

64

343

32

Influencing the types of lawsuits

According to the officer in charge of the penal section of Bethlehem police, there has been a drop in the number of criminal law suits, which have been restricted to motoring offences and possession of stolen property. There has also been a drop in social and family-related cases, but there has been aincrease in security-related cases in terms of unearthing Palestinian collaborators with Israel. The number of people held in custody dropped has dropped by 50%.

Office of the Attorney General

Month (2000)

New cases

Followed up cases

Settled lawsuits

Followed up cases

January

129

1

118

14

February

148

22

137

45

March

133

4

121

77

April

144

3

132

50

May

179

37

166

20

June

289

63

275

11

July

89

3

6

31

August

122

3

184

16

September

65

2

164

6 (siege)

October

59

1

59

0 (siege)

November

66

2

64

0 (siege)

Bethlehem public notary:

The workload has been reduced by 60%. Bethlehem’s public notary stated that on average his office used to receive an average of 400-500 applications a month. In the month before the siege (26 August – 27 September 2000), 598 applications were received. In the first three months of siege (28 September – 18 December 2000), only 601 applications were received in total. The public notary also stated that there has been a change in the types of applications; for instance, those concerned with bank transactions and mortgages have reduced by 90%, but the rate of power of attorney and passport renewal applications has increased.

Bethlehem court revenue

Month (2000)

Revenue from court fees (NIS)

July

22,520

September

22,014

October

11,682

November

10,912

December

6,186

The table shows the reduction in the court’s revenue, which indicates a reduction in the workload.

Lawyers

The role of lawyers, a vital component of the judiciary, has been almost totally disrupted by the Israeli siege of the Palestinian territories. Many lawyers have been unable to reach their offices for the past five months, affecting their productivity as well as their income. In addition, many Palestinian lawyers have been beaten and humiliated at military checkpoints.

The Palestinian Bar Association has exempted lawyers from paying the cooperative fund fees in order to reduce the financial burden the lawyers had to face. It has also delayed retirement fund fees until 31 June 2001.

Lawyers’ statements

Mohammad Khlaif, Bethlehem:

“The judiciary in the PNA-controlled areas in general, and in Bethlehem in particular, has suffered immensely from the Israeli siege, the spread of settlers on the roads, the military checkpoints, roadblocks, humiliation, threats, and the terror of the Israeli army and settlers. These factors have:

Delayed court decisions for many legal cases for more than three months,
thus piling up the lawsuits awaiting a court decision. The siege has rendered
the Palestinian judiciary unreliable at a time when it was already at a crucial
stage in its development;

Reduced people’s faith in the judiciary’s control over business deals, thus
reducing commercial deals and lawyers’ income;

Disrupted freedom of movement, forcing the freezing of legal cases from
Bethlehem or other districts to be dealt with at the appeal and high courts
of Ramallah;

Frozen religious cases at the Jerusalem civil courts;

Prevented lawyers working with Palestinian detainees from reaching Israeli
military courts;

Forced people in some cases to take mountainous roads from Hebron to Ramallah,
which took 2-3 hours, however, these mountainous roads were usually blocked
by concrete blocks and Israeli soldiers would be waiting on them to capture
and humiliate anyone trying to get from one place to another.

Shukri Al Nashashibi

Delays: The Israeli siege on the Palestinian territories and the
isolation of villages and cities has led to the inability of lawyers, prosecutors,
witnesses and judges from reaching different courts, as well as a great
confusion in the running of these courts. As a result, many cases have been
continuously and relatively delayed for long periods of time, which has
had a negative effect on the judiciary and a delay in passing judgments
and obtaining people their rights.

The psychology of judges and legal professionals: The effects of
the current situation are not limited to the delay of legal cases. It affects
judges, employees and lawyers, causing daily suffering to legal professionals
attempting to cross unpaved mountainous roads and spending long hours waiting
at military checkpoints; in some cases after all that they fail to reach
courts. Besides this, the siege affects the mood in a way that makes legal
professionals unable to accomplish their duties appropriately and even decreases
their motivation.

The reason for the decrease in the amount of applications filed:
There is a possibility that the decrease in the amount of applications filed
is another effect of the Israeli siege and its economic and political consequences.
People now tend to avoid visiting courts in the belief that it useless under
the current circumstances, preferring to consult administrative parties
and different systems to solve their problems quickly. In addition, the
decrease in civil and trade procedures inevitably results in a decrease
in disputes between people.

Access to courts in case of significant incident with Israeli soldiers
at checkpoints: Having to cross rough mountain tracks and wait long
hours in traffic jams and at checkpoints, not to mention the treatment to
which people are exposed at checkpoints by the Israeli occupation forces,
leads to a great difficulty in reaching work. A law trainee on his way to
court at Beit Eel was intercepted at the checkpoint when Israeli soldiers
pointed their weapons at him forcing him to lie on the ground and leaving
aside all his files. Then they searched his papers and files and tearing
some, and then he was released after humiliations and insults.

The economic conditions of lawyers due to siege: In light of the
paralysis of the courts, the dramatic decrease in citizens consulting the
judiciary and their failure to pay on time, many lawyers are now unable
to meet their own financial obligations or taxes. The financial condition
of most lawyers has been severely affected since there is no other source
of income for them or resources for practical solutions, even if only temporary,
for the extraordinary conditions of the current situation.

Conclusions:

The siege has severely and negatively affected the judiciary. Israel,
by imposing such a siege, has violated all international conventions and
laws that confirm citizens’ rights in prosecution freely and without any
difficulty.

The Palestinian National Authority should establish branches of the appellate
court in the northern and southern areas of the West Bank, a court of first
instance in Tulkarem and Jenin, and implement the related presidential resolution.

The number of judges and employees in all West Bank courts should be increased
in a way appropriate to the huge amounts of work at these courts.